Narine leaves KKR in a spin ahead of Royals IPL clash

Sport360 staff 04:14 26/04/2015
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  • Worried: Kolkata captain Gambhir.

    The unavailability of spinner Sunil Narine will be a big concern for defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders as they prepare for a tough match-up with Rajasthan Royals.

    The West Indies spinner was reported for a suspect action and will undergo further tests at the ICC and BCCI accredited testing facility in Chennai.

    It will be the second trip in a month to the Chennai testing centre for Narine despite getting clearance from the BCCI just days before the IPL started.

    With so much scrutiny on their star player, the Knight Riders will be feeling the pressure as they host the Royals at the Eden Gardens.

    What will add to Kolkata’s worries is that even with Narine in their line-up during their last clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad, they failed to tackle the opposition batsmen.

    Hyderabad openers Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner added 130 runs and Kolkata will be wary of a similar effort by Rajasthan’s opening duo of Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson, both of whom are in excellent nick.

    However, they have some decent options to fall back upon in Narine’s absence. Kolkata opened the bowling with offie Johan Botha against Hyderabad and he gave away just 26 runs from four overs. They also have a few exciting young spinners in KC Cariappa and Kuldeep Yadav.

    For the Royals, they have some issues of their own. After winning the first five games, Watson’s team has slipped to two successive defeats.

    Their Super Over loss to Kings XI Punjab seems to have unsettled them and that defeat was followed by a nine-wicket thrashing by Royal Challengers Bangalore.

    Royals all-rounder Stuart Binny admitted that his team failed to get the runs on board in their game against Bangalore, posting just 130, but added that the players have it in them to raise their game.

    “We have the firepower, we have the guys who can take the score to 200,” Binny said. “The starts have been excellent so far; we messed up only one start so far. We need to give ourselves little bit of time and bat aggressively towards the end.”

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